T-Mobile Spells CFO Out Exit Plan
March 29 2019 - 9:38PM
Dow Jones News
By Ezequiel Minaya
T-Mobile US Inc. on Friday filed an amended employment agreement
for its finance chief that spells out a plan for him to leave the
company as it awaits regulatory review of a proposed merger with
rival Sprint Corp.
CFO Braxton Carter has been a key figure in the mobile carrier's
pending deal to buy Sprint. A spokeswoman for T-Mobile declined to
comment on whether a successor had been chosen.
Mr. Carter's last day at T-Mobile will be decided by the status
of the merger, the company said in a regulatory filing with the
Securities and Exchange Commission. Mr. Carter is scheduled to
leave at one of three fixed dates, depending which arrives first:
the end of 2019; 20 days after the first quarterly filing of the
merged company; or 20 days after an announcement the deal is
off.
Analysts speculated about the departure of Mr. Carter in
September, when T-Mobile said Sunit Patel would join the company to
lead its expected integration with Sprint. Mr. Patel had been chief
financial officer at CenturyLink Inc.
"We believe this offers an interesting read through for the
future of current TMUS CFO Braxton Carter," analysts at Wells Fargo
Securities wrote of the hire in a Sept. 25 note. "Language in the
merger documents led us to believe Carter may retire post the close
of the merger."
Last year, T-Mobile announced a $26 billion deal to buy Sprint.
The combined company would be called T-Mobile and would be run by
T-Mobile CEO John Legere. It is the third time in recent years the
two rivals have attempted the combination.
In 2017, Sprint and T-Mobile entered merger negotiations but
walked away after the companies failed to agree on who would
control the combined company, people familiar with the matter told
The Wall Street Journal at the time. SoftBank Group controls 83% of
Sprint. Germany's Deutsche Telekom AG owns 62% of T-Mobile.
If the merger is successful, the resulting company would create
a wireless carrier that could challenge Verizon Communications
Inc., which reported about 118 million wireless customers at the
end of 2018.
The amended employment agreement increases Mr. Carter's base
salary to $950,000, among other changes to his compensation. Mr.
Carter has been CFO since April 2013. Previously, he was CFO for
MetroPCS Communications Inc. beginning on March 2005 until it was
acquired by T-Mobile US in 2013.
T-Mobile disclosed details of the contract after the close of
regular trading on the Nasdaq. Shares of the company closed at
$69.10, down 0.07%.
--Drew FitzGerald, Dana Cimilluca and Dana Mattioli contributed
to this article.
Write to Ezequiel Minaya at ezequiel.minaya@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
March 29, 2019 21:23 ET (01:23 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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